Black Sea Devil anglerfish caught on video for the first time

I think we have to thank Pixar for a large portion of the movie-going public knowing what an anglerfish is. One was used to great effect in the movie Finding Nemo, as you can see in the scene below:

That fake anglerfish has been seen millions of times on screens around the world, but real anglerfish are illusive. There’s less than half a dozen pieces of footage of the anglerfish in existence, but the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) got lucky recently and have recorded the first ever sighting of a Black Sea Devil anglerfish in its natural habitat.

The footage was captured by MBARI Senior Scientist Bruce Robison while controlling the remotely operated vehicle Doc Ricketts in Monterey Bay. The 9cm-long anglerfish is swimming around at a depth of 580 meters (1,900 feet), and due to the species this is identified as a female complete with fishing pole (the males don’t have them).

As the video explains, this is an ambush predator. It is not built for speed, instead using the light at the end of its fishing pole to attract fish and squids within range to be sucked into that huge mouth. This example is also an easy one to identify if seen again due to the broken tooth hanging out of its mouth (presuming it doesn’t fall off).

The deeper we go in Earth’s oceans the more unusual life gets. Hopefully with a few more advances in deep sea remote craft we’ll get to see a lot more of the anglerfish as well as discovering just how weird things get at the very bottom of the deepest oceans.